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Athletes are supposed to be strong and self-assured, so many don’t seek help for mental health issues, a new study finds. It’s not just the stigma of mental illness that prompts many to tough it out alone, but also busy schedules, gender stereotyping and lack of understanding about mental health issues. That’s the consensus of researchers from Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States, who looked at 52 studies covering more than 13,000 elite athletes in 71 sports. The findings were published May 16 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. “Athletes fear, possibly rightly so, that disclosing mental health symptoms or disorders would reduce their chances of maintaining or signing a professional team contract or an advertising campaign,” the researchers said in a journal news release. It’s up to coaches and sport-governing bodies to help remove the stigma of mental illness and encourage mental well-being, the study authors added. As many as one in three elite athletes suffers from mental illness. The demands of training to improve performance heighten the risk, the researchers noted. Stigma was the most common factor in not seeking help, the investigators found. Mental illness was seen as a sign of weakness rather than the “hallmark of a winner,” according to the report. “Coaches could be important agents for supporting positive mental health attitudes within the elite athlete environment, including… read on >

Parents often fret when their teen drivers get behind the wheel, but parents of teens with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may now have added worries. A new study found that teens with ADHD are significantly more likely to get into a car crash than their peers. During the first month a teen with ADHD is driving, the risk of an auto accident is 62% higher than for other teens. And over four years, the risk of an alcohol-related crash is roughly two times higher for drivers with ADHD. Teens with ADHD are also more likely to get traffic tickets and engage in risky behaviors, such as not wearing a seatbelt, using electronics behind the wheel and driving too fast, the new research found. “Teen drivers with ADHD are at an elevated risk for motor vehicle crashes, and the risk is particularly elevated in the first month of licensure, regardless of when they got licensed. Parents shouldn’t assume that delaying licensure will lower their teen’s risk,” said study author Allison Curry. She’s a senior scientist at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. ADHD is common in childhood and usually persists into adolescence, the study authors said. Symptoms include hyperactive behavior, inattention and impulsivity. Many of the skills needed for driving are impaired in teens with ADHD. The study included nearly 15,000… read on >

Just a few extra pounds during adolescence may translate into higher odds for heart disease in adulthood, a new study of young men suggests. It included about 1.7 million Swedish men who began military service at ages 18 or 19 between 1969 and 2005. They were followed for up to 46 years. During the follow-up, nearly 4,500 were diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, an uncommon heart muscle condition that can lead to heart failure. Average age at diagnosis was 45.5 years. Men who were lean as teens (body mass index, or BMI, below 20) had a low risk of cardiomyopathy. But risk steadily rose with increased weight, even among men who were on the high end of normal BMI (22.5 to 25) as teens. BMI is an estimate of body fat based on weight and height. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese: For example, a 5-foot-10-inch man who weighs 209 pounds has a BMI of 30. There are several types of cardiomyopathy. In dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle becomes weak and can’t pump blood efficiently. In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, it becomes stiff and the heart can’t fill with blood properly. Men who had a BMI of 35 and over in their teens (someone 5-foot-10 who weighs 245 or more) were eight times more likely to develop dilated cardiomyopathy than those who were lean in their… read on >

(HealthDay News) –Bed bugs hitchhike from place to place by traveling on furniture, bedding, luggage and more. The small nuisances live on the blood of animals or humans and can be quite resilient, says the Environmental Protection Agency. To help prevent bed bugs in your home, the EPA suggests: Check secondhand furniture for bed bugs before bringing it home. Use protective covers to encase mattresses and box springs. Reduce clutter in your home to reduce hiding places. Be vigilant when using shared laundry facilities. Vacuum frequently.

Here’s another health danger climate change will deliver in the coming years: New research warns that back-to-back heat waves that go on for days will become more common as the planet warms. The elderly and the poor will be the least prepared to weather this threat, the investigators noted. But hospital ERs and emergency service providers will also be vulnerable to the public health havoc that such “compound heat waves” will likely inflict. “By compound heat wave, we mean multiple heat waves — or possibly individual extremely hot days — occurring one after the other separated by short cooler breaks,” explained study author Jane Wilson Baldwin. She’s a postdoctoral research associate with the Princeton Environmental Institute in New Jersey. An example, Baldwin said, would be five extremely hot days, followed by a respite of a couple of cooler days, and then three more extremely hot days. Such repetitive scorchers are not confined to some distant future, the study found. They are already here, with heat waves and droughts currently pegged as the direct cause of roughly 20% of natural disaster deaths in the continental United States, more than any other single natural cause. “However, these events will become significantly more common with global warming,” noted Baldwin. “In the present climate, only about 10% of heat waves exhibit these compound structures. Without drastic changes to carbon… read on >

Transgender women on gender-confirming hormone therapy have increased odds of breast cancer, but the overall risk is low and not as high as it is for the general female population, a new study finds. Trans women are those who were declared male at birth but identify as female. Previous research has shown that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) increases breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, but it was unclear whether the same was true for trans women receiving hormone treatment. The new study looked at 2,260 trans women and 1,229 trans men who received gender-affirming hormone therapy at a clinic in the Netherlands between 1972 and 2016. The researchers found that trans women on hormone therapy had a higher breast cancer risk than the general male population. And transgender men (female sex assigned at birth, male gender identity) were found to have a lower breast cancer risk than the general female population. Average age at the start of hormone treatment was 31 for trans women and 23 for trans men, and average treatment time was 13 years for trans women and eight years for trans men, according to the report. Among the trans women, 15 cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed at an average age of 50. On average, those patients had received hormone treatment for 18 years. That rate was higher than that in… read on >

If you’re part of a multi-generational home, you’re in good company. The number of Americans living with two or more adult generations of one family rose during the last recession and has grown to an all-time high during the recovery. More than 64 million Americans live in a multi-generational home, according to a census analysis by the Pew Research Center. About half of such households include two generations, while almost 27 million more have three — such as grandparents, parents and grandchildren. That’s a lot of opinions to have under one roof. Here are suggestions to help make such living arrangements emotionally healthy and even rewarding for everyone. First, establish ground rules for all aspects of communal life, from how to handle disagreements to who puts out the trash. Write up and post a list of responsibilities that takes into account each family member’s strengths and abilities. Next, create a spreadsheet for family expenses such as monthly bills and weekly food shopping, and what every person’s contributions are. This should include everything from gas for the car to internet and wireless services if everyone is on a shared family plan (great for saving money). Depending on each person’s financial circumstances, the amounts might not always be divided equally, but there will be fewer money arguments if there’s a family-wide consensus about what’s fair. For harmony,… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Glucosamine has long been used as a supplement to help ease the joint pain of arthritis, but new research suggests its anti-inflammatory properties might also lower heart disease risk. The finding stems from a lifestyle survey involving more than 466,000 British men and women. None had been diagnosed with heart disease when they were first polled between 2006 and 2010. Nearly one in five said they had been taking glucosamine. After an average tracking period of seven years, taking the supplement was associated with a 15% lower risk for heart disease overall. Though a cause-and-effect link was not proven, glucosamine was also tied to a drop of between 9% and 22% for experiencing coronary heart disease, stroke, and/or a heart disease-related death. “Glucosamine is an amino sugar, and a natural compound found in cartilage, which is the tough tissue that cushions joints,” explained study author Dr. Lu Qi. He is director of the Tulane University Obesity Research Center, in New Orleans. “To my knowledge, people take glucosamine mainly through supplements, and therefore, not in significant quantities through diet.” As to his team’s findings, Qi described the association as “moderate, but significant.” “I am a bit surprised but not very much, because previous studies from humans or animals have shown that glucosamine may have protective effects on inflammation, which is a risk factor… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Could people struggling with obesity make headway in their efforts to shed pounds without having to go under the knife? New preliminary research suggests it’s possible: A non-surgical procedure may help moderately obese people lose weight — and keep it off. Unlike standard weight-loss surgery, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) requires no incision and no hospital stay. Instead, doctors thread a scope down the throat and into the stomach, then use a suturing device attached to the scope to cinch the stomach in — ultimately shrinking it to a banana-sized pouch. The result is, “you eat less, you feel full and you lose weight,” said study author Dr. Reem Sharaiha. Sharaiha and her colleagues at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, in New York City, were among the first to start performing ESG, back in 2013. She said they offer it mainly to patients with a body mass index (BMI) of between 30 and 40 — which puts them in the mildly to moderately obese category. Standard obesity surgeries — like gastric bypass — are generally reserved for two groups of people: Those with a BMI of at least 40 (more than 100 pounds overweight); and those with a BMI of 35 or more, plus an obesity-related condition such as type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure. Studies have shown that, in the short term,… read on >

The loss of loved ones can hit the elderly particularly hard, but a new study suggests it’s anger, and not sadness, that may damage the aging body more. Anger can increase inflammation, which is linked with conditions such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis, the researchers said. “As most people age, they simply cannot do the activities they once did, or they may experience the loss of a spouse or a decline in their physical mobility and they can become angry,” explained lead author Meaghan Barlow, of Concordia University in Montreal. “Our study showed that anger can lead to the development of chronic illnesses, whereas sadness did not,” she added. For the study, the investigators looked at 226 adults, aged 59 to 93, in Montreal, who completed questionnaires about how angry or sad they felt. The participants were also asked if they had any chronic illnesses, and blood samples were collected from them to measure inflammation. According to study co-author Carsten Wrosch, of Concordia University, the findings showed that “experiencing anger daily was related to higher levels of inflammation and chronic illness for people 80 years old and older, but not for younger seniors.” However, sadness was “not related to inflammation or chronic illness,” Wrosch added in an American Psychological Association news release. Barlow suggested that sadness may help older seniors adjust to challenges such… read on >